eBook Reader - oooo exciting

I'm a eReader gal, have been for a good few years now. Love 'em. When I go on holiday I don't have to make the difficult call: clothes or books. Books usually won then either I want something I didn't bring, or I'd have to wash my clothes more often. So now I throw my reader in my handbag and voila, many books to read, many choices at my finger tips.

But if you know me, then you know this already, so what's go me excited. Two new readers peaking their noses over the horizon.

1. Kobo Aura H2O
The Canadian manufacturer has announced the Aura H2O, the first waterproof eReader, will on sale in October. That's right waterproof!

"Kobo says it spoke to its customers when designing the Aura H20 and found that reading revolved around what it calls the five Bs:

• Bed
• Bath
• Beach
• Backyard
• Bus"

Bath and Beach just shouted out as an opportunity and Kobo is filling it.

You know what other problem it solves? ... Reading in the shower. You just can't put that book down, no time for a bath, reluctantly you jump in the shower. The Aura H2O solves something even paper books didn't do. Rest it on the soap rack and hope you don't get shampoo in your eyes.

2. Kindle Voyage

What makes this so special is the screen. 300 pixels per inch, which makes text incredibly sharp and readable, plus the screen is higher contrast. Front-light with ambient light detector. The screen also sits flush with the front of the Voyage, making a single flat pane of glass. Yes, it's glass instead of plastic, but Amazon has "micro-etched" a matted texture to it so that it's non-reflective in sunlight. (which has always been my issue with reading on iPads / phones)

Summary

	Kobo Aura H2O	Kindle Voyage
Display size	6.8”	6"
resolution	265 ppi	300 ppi
size	179 x 129 x 9.7 mm	162 x 115 x 7.6 mm
weight	233g	188g
front light	yes	yes
wi-fi	yes	yes
storage	4 GB	4 GB
battery	Up to 2 months	six weeks
formats	EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR, XHTML and MOBI	AZW3, AZW, TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion
waterproof	yes	no

eGadgets: men vs. women

eReaders vs. tablets. Men vs. women.

     I came across a fun little article that looks at recent AC Nielsen data, and asks if it's too soon to be making gender stereotypes. Apparently recent surveys show that women love their eReaders and men their tablets. 61% of reader owners were women; 57% of tablet owners are men.
     Now I'm not sure one way or the other. After all, the stats are pretty close, but the first thing I thought... I love my Sony Reader and my husband loves his iPad. hmmmm

 Other interesting snippets:
Phones on the other hand are "equal handed" in male/female ownership.
And older users are starting to pick up the new tech.

Technology is changing so fast, nonetheless in's interesting to see where we are, and to wonder where we'll end up :)